Subject: Pilot Labs Says Test For AIDS Produces Results in 10 Minutes
Date: Published: 12/12/86 56 lines
Source:  Wall Street Journal.  Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc. 

   Pilot Labs Says Test
   For AIDS Produces
   Results in 10 Minutes

   A new kind of blood test to detect persons exposed to the
virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome was
announced by a small Canadian concern.
   Pilot Laboratories Corp. of Vancouver said the new test
gives a result in 10 minutes compared with two to four hours
required for AIDS blood tests currently used.  Pilot
Laboratories, which specializes in commercializing medical
technology, said it provided $6 million to Murex Corp. of
Norcross, Ga., to develop the test.
   Murex, a closely held biotechnology concern, plans to
begin producing and selling the test sometime next year,
provided it is approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
   Both Pilot and Murex claim that in laboratory trials the
new test produced fewer erroneous results than the older
tests.  However, Jarel Kelsey, president and chief executive
officer of Murex, declined to give details.  "We have to
conduct a number of more formal clinical trials to validate
the claims we'd want to make" for the test's accuracy, he
said.  He noted that other companies are racing to develop
similar AIDS blood tests and "we don't want to reveal our
performance claims to competitors just now."
   Like current blood tests, the new Murex test detects
antibodies that a person exposed to the AIDS virus has built
up in his blood in an attempt to fend off the virus.  The
exposed person may or may not develop AIDS. The Murex test
uses so-called monoclonal antibodies produced in the
laboratory that are designed specifically to attach
themselves to the patient's anti-AIDS antibodies.  Older blood
tests use enzymes to detect anti-AIDS antibodies.
   The Murex test involves dropping a number of tiny,
specially prepared latex beads into the well of a small,
disposable plastic container and then adding a few drops of
the patient's blood and a chemical reagent.  If after 10
minutes, a tiny window exhibits a blue color, it indicates
the patient has been exposed to the AIDS virus.
   The new test's rapidity is likely to appeal to physicians
who test individual patients and to laboratories and blood
banks that do a small volume of AIDS blood testing.  Large
blood banks and screening programs currently are automating
the older blood tests, allowing them to process hundreds of
blood samples per hour despite the two to four hours required
to get a result from each sample.

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